STIRLING MP Anne McGuire called for the Government to introduce a £1 million research fund to look at the effect of war service on mental health.

She said the funding would come from rebalancing services, cutting out top posts to balance those cuts that are taking place throughout the services. Charities could bid for funding to support the policy research.

The MP said: “In-service support is rightly the focus for welfare provision but I and my colleagues are concerned that there is a potentially long time lag between leaving the services and experiencing mental health problems.

“With the possibility that an increasing number of service personnel are at risk, we want to see meaningful work on improving long-term post-service support.

“The country owes it to all those who have served to provide proper support. Whether dealing with mental or physical injury, depression or stress, the courage shown by service personnel is not just on the battlefield but in recovering from the long-term effects of conflict.

“The Government's rushed defence review has just two pages on service welfare and we are determined that this dereliction of pastoral care never happens again.”

A spokesperson for the Royal British Legion said: “We welcome the hugely important debate of how the nation will support our armed forces, veterans and their families after operations in Afghanistan have drawn to a close.

“It is the nation's obligation under the Armed Forces Covenant to ensure these issues are addressed and for many of our brave armed forces their injuries, both visible and invisible, will have a lifelong impact.

“Issues faced by service personnel may not be immediately obvious. Post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, takes an average of 13 years to become evident.

“We welcome this debate and call on all parties to work together on constructive solutions.”

Combat Stress said that a significant minority of servicemen and women suffer from mental ill-health as a result of their experiences.

Its research suggests that of the 191,000 personnel who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan about 7600 could develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Another 37,600 may be battling other mental health problems such as depression, mood disorders and anxiety.

The Royal British Legion said that by 2020 1.8 million people in the armed forces community will be living with long-standing illness, 800,000 will be isolated socially and 700,000 will be living below the poverty line.